It is well known to dry clothes after washing in tumble-type dryer. However, tumble dryers suffer the disadvantage of permanently wrinkling clothes of certain fabrics. In particular, the tumble dryers of the prior art tend to wrinkle permanent press clothing if the clothing is not promptly removed from the dryer after it completes its cycle. Consequently, the operator is required to be present when the dryer completes its cycle to remove clothing therefrom resulting in an inconvenience to the operator. Further, tumble dryers produce wrinkles in clothes by the very nature of the tumbling cycle.
The prior art also contemplates the use of a clothes drying machine wherein the articles to be dried are mounted on a hanger or rack to allow hot turbulent air to be circulated around the clothing article to affect its drying. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 380,949 issued to Shannon discloses a clothes dryer wherein a plurality of clothes racks are mounted as drawers in a cabinet structure, the cabinet providing means to heat and circulate air around clothing mounted on the plurality of racks to affect drying thereof. Other devices contemplate clothing mounted on a hanger and stretched over a vent aperture to allow hot air to be forced into the interior of a wet clothing article to affect drying thereof. Examples of these devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 759,179 issued to Wiesman.
The prior art also contemplates horizontally mounted clothes racks, mounted so as to be extended from the clothes drying machine to allow easy access thereto. Further, the prior art devices contemplate the use of a drip pan mounted directly beneath the above described clothing rack to collect excess water dripping from wet clothing articles prior to the completion of the drying step. Examples of these devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,336 issued to Bereza.
The devices of the prior art suffer the disadvantages of having no adequate means to attach clothing articles to the clothing rack to prohibit the article from being blown off of the rack when exposed to forceful gusts of hot drying air. Further, the devices of the prior art, while suggesting the use of drip pans, have no means to link the drip pan to the rack fixture to assure that the drip pan is under the wet clothing article at all times during the loading and drying operations. Further, the devices of the prior art fail to provide an easy means of both loading and unloading clothing articles from the drying cabinet while simultaneously providing a drip pan to collect all excess water from the clothing articles during the loading and drying operations.